I asked a similar question of my catechist when I was becoming Orthodox. He looked at me like I'd just asked a strange question, and he didn't know. We did eventually find out what was used there, but to be honest it doesn't really matter as there is no agreed-upon version.

My home parish uses the NKJV. My current parish (and many others) use KJV, and I've heard of the Douay-Rheims being used. A lot of Orthodox like the RSV, too, but I don't think I've heard it used.

Suffice it to say, there's not formal list of English translations, not that I know of anyway.

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"Hades is not a place, no, but a state of the soul. It begins here on earth. Just so, paradise begins in the soul of a man here in the earthly life. Here we already have contact with the divine..." -St. John, Wonderworker of Shanghai and San Francisco, Homily On the Sunday of Orthodoxy

Thank you for all your answers. I feel surprised that the EOC even uses the KJV (a Protestant Bible) for Divine Liturgy.

On the other hand, I heard that the RCC approves only certain Bible versions for Holy Mass, and the others are not accepted.

There are not many EO translations and the KJV follows the Byzantine Text instead of the Alexandrian.

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"Who wants to be consistent? The dullard and the doctrinaire, the tedious people who carry out their principles to the bitter end of action, to the reductio ad absurdum of practice. Not I."-Oscar Wilde, The Decay of Lying

"Who wants to be consistent? The dullard and the doctrinaire, the tedious people who carry out their principles to the bitter end of action, to the reductio ad absurdum of practice. Not I."-Oscar Wilde, The Decay of Lying

Holy Cross Orthodox Press, the publishing arm of the Holy Cross School of Theology, an institution of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, publishes the Gospel Book and the Apostolos (Book of Epistles) which use the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, if I'm not mistaken. These publications were both endorsed by Archbishop Iakovos of America, of Blessed Memory. "The Orthodox Study Bible," which is used in church too, uses the New King James Version and is endorsed by the Standing Conference of Orthodox Bishops of the Americas (SCOBA), the predecessor of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops on North and Central America (ACOB).

None of the commonly distributed English language bibles are officially accepted for worship services primarily, because their Old Testaments do not include all the books of the Septuagint, the Apocrypha. Only the Greek language "Evangelion" ("Book of the Gospels") published by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1904 is officially authorized for use in the Divine Services of the churches, that are under the jurisdiction of the Church of Constantinople.

The "Common Bible," which used the Revised Standard Version, published in the 1970's, included the Apocryphal books of the Septuagint and was endorsed by Archbishop Iakovos also, but for some reason was never commonly used in Orthodox Church worship.

Thank you for all your answers. I feel surprised that the EOC even uses the KJV (a Protestant Bible) for Divine Liturgy.

Whatever the translation's origins, I'm hard-pressed to find anything wrong with it for Orthodox use, aside from the Old Testament being based on the Masoretic text. It (along with the NKJV) has the advantage over other English Bibles of using a Byzantine text for its New Testament.

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"A riddle or the cricket's cryIs to doubt a fit reply." - William Blake

Thank you for all your answers. I feel surprised that the EOC even uses the KJV (a Protestant Bible) for Divine Liturgy.

Whatever the translation's origins, I'm hard-pressed to find anything wrong with it for Orthodox use, aside from the Old Testament being based on the Masoretic text. It (along with the NKJV) has the advantage over other English Bibles of using a Byzantine text for its New Testament.

True, but to date there hasn't been a good English translation of the Septuagint.

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"Who wants to be consistent? The dullard and the doctrinaire, the tedious people who carry out their principles to the bitter end of action, to the reductio ad absurdum of practice. Not I."-Oscar Wilde, The Decay of Lying

Thank you for all your answers. I feel surprised that the EOC even uses the KJV (a Protestant Bible) for Divine Liturgy.

Whatever the translation's origins, I'm hard-pressed to find anything wrong with it for Orthodox use, aside from the Old Testament being based on the Masoretic text. It (along with the NKJV) has the advantage over other English Bibles of using a Byzantine text for its New Testament.

True, but to date there hasn't been a good English translation of the Septuagint.

If you like the style of the KJV, there is now a KJV Septuagint available online, revised by Michael Asser. He recently announced that there are plans to publish it in book form by September 2013.

« Last Edit: October 19, 2012, 08:44:53 PM by Iconodule »

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"A riddle or the cricket's cryIs to doubt a fit reply." - William Blake

They use a print-on-demand publisher (lulu.com).Their New Testament has been out for a while. It has some annoying aspects, like translating "episkopos" as "overseer. It looks like Fr. Laurent Cleenewerck is the one most responsible for the project and some of his pet theories about apostolic succession are pushed in the appendix. They seem to be chronically behind schedule- their Psalter was supposed to be released a long time ago. I'd be very surprised if their Old Testament were finished by the end of the year.

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"A riddle or the cricket's cryIs to doubt a fit reply." - William Blake

They use a print-on-demand publisher (lulu.com).Their New Testament has been out for a while. It has some annoying aspects, like translating "episkopos" as "overseer. It looks like Fr. Laurent Cleenewerck is the one most responsible for the project and some of his pet theories about apostolic succession are pushed in the appendix. They seem to be chronically behind schedule- their Psalter was supposed to be released a long time ago. I'd be very surprised if their Old Testament were finished by the end of the year.

I read their home page. I haven't heard of anyone associated with this project. There is no indication, from what I read, as to how this group got put together. Are the priests canonical, in churches under ACOB? Is there an episcopal overseer?

I heard that the OSB Septuagint translation is far from perfect with as example psalm 23, which uses the Masoretic instead of the LXX.

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"Who wants to be consistent? The dullard and the doctrinaire, the tedious people who carry out their principles to the bitter end of action, to the reductio ad absurdum of practice. Not I."-Oscar Wilde, The Decay of Lying

They use a print-on-demand publisher (lulu.com).Their New Testament has been out for a while. It has some annoying aspects, like translating "episkopos" as "overseer. It looks like Fr. Laurent Cleenewerck is the one most responsible for the project and some of his pet theories about apostolic succession are pushed in the appendix. They seem to be chronically behind schedule- their Psalter was supposed to be released a long time ago. I'd be very surprised if their Old Testament were finished by the end of the year.

I read their home page. I haven't heard of anyone associated with this project. There is no indication, from what I read, as to how this group got put together. Are the priests canonical, in churches under ACOB? Is there an episcopal overseer?

Fr. Laurent is an OCA priest. I don't know if there is any episcopal oversight.

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"A riddle or the cricket's cryIs to doubt a fit reply." - William Blake

Thank you for all your answers. I feel surprised that the EOC even uses the KJV (a Protestant Bible) for Divine Liturgy.

On the other hand, I heard that the RCC approves only certain Bible versions for Holy Mass, and the others are not accepted.

That's because they actually have their own translations of the Bible (i.e. Bibles translated by Catholics for Catholics and approved by Catholic authorities), the Orthodox Church does not, at least not in English.